


Time Travel? Oh My

by SnowyfootOfWindClan



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, Gen, Pre-war!, This fic really should already exist, Time Travel, no beta we die like jet, tags will update as fic progresses, written at midnight
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-28 02:07:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30132348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SnowyfootOfWindClan/pseuds/SnowyfootOfWindClan
Summary: A fic where the Gaang travel to a time before the war! Because it apparently doesn't exist?Anyways, I hope you enjoy
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar), Original Character(s)/Original Character(s)
Kudos: 12





	1. A Bump in the Night

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone! The story behind this fic is that I was just, ya know, scrolling through AO3 a few days ago, when I felt the urge to look for time travel about Avatar. And I was kind of shocked to notice that there wasn't anything about the Gaang going back to.. Before? 
> 
> So anyways, I got inspired and started writing. Hope you enjoy!

Rhe sighed, running a comb through her dark hair. Her husband, Aki, had been delayed once again on his route home. Sometimes, she wondered if Lady Zhu just wanted to keep him away for as long as she could within reason. It wasn’t the first time something like this had happened, after all. Last year, he’d been back three months late. She hoped with all her heart that this year wouldn’t be a repeat.

Thud. Rhe jumped, dropping the comb on the ground, and wincing when she heard a loud shatter. Drat. That was an antique. She stood up from the bed, carefully side-stepping the colorful shards of glass that had previously decorated the comb’s spine.  
As Rhe made her way the kitchen to get the broom and dustpan, she thought she heard some more bumps through the now steady pitter patter of rain on the roof, but she put it down to paranoia. When she got to the kitchen, Rhe was surprised to see light coming in through the opened window. Wasn’t yesterday the new moon? She wondered, contemplating for a moment. At least it didn’t look like fire.

She grabbed a shawl off of a shelf, and wrapped it around her shoulders. The last thing she wanted right now was to catch a cold from the rain. Rhe pushed the back door open, standing under the little bit of shelter provided by the edge of the roof. Nothing looked all that out of the ordinary, but when she looked back into the kitchen, the light still came through. Rhe shook her head.

As she opened the gate to the glorified little patch of weeds her aunt called a garden, Rhe felt her spine shiver. She strolled to the middle of the path that went from the rickety gate to the wall, looking around when she got there. From what she could see, still no light. Crack. Rhe tensed up.

“Hello?” She asked, regretting her choice to call out almost instantly. Here she was, expecting, with her husband far away, under the stars, in an overgrown garden, calling out to things that go bump in the night. Stupid. 

She waited for a few seconds. No response. Maybe it was just a pet? Rhe let out a breath of relief. She was just about to leave when she heard a loud crash (originating from behind the only Agni forsaken tree in the entire garden), followed by a very, very obviously human voice shouting out an ‘OOF’.

Rhe covered her mouth. Usually, she wasn’t the type to make noise when confronted with such a situation, but she hadn’t been sleeping well for the past few nights, and at this unholy hour, there wasn’t a person in sight.

Then, she heard somebody else (a teenaged girl, if Rhe had to guess).

“Sokka!” Rhe inhaled, picking up a rake that had been leaned up against the wall of her home for who knows how long. She took a step towards the source of the sound. And another. And another. She stopped. She opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, she felt a presence behind her back.


	2. Woodbenders?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Gaang try to figure out what time it is.

Katara didn’t really know what hit them. One moment, they were trying to find the Firelord before the eclipse ended, the next there was a flash of blue light. And then… Then they were here. In what looked to be a Firenation town or city. Whatever it was, it certainly was not the Caldera City, nor was it the tunnels that its inhabitants were hiding it.

The garden was so messy, and the streets so empty, that Katara had first thought that the town or city was abandoned. But as it turned out, it was just a very quiet place.

It seemed, however, that their arrival had disturbed whomever lived in the house, because they soon saw a candle light through a window. Sokka saw it first, and they were all up in a small, pitifully underwatered tree when the gate creaked open.

It was a woman, dreary eyed and agitated, one hand tightly clutching a candle and the other her belly. The weird light blue stuff that had apparently brought them there was gone now. Katara tried her best to ignore that and watched the lady walk into the middle of the yard, and heard her say, in a shaky voice,  
“Hello?” The lady seemed to regret it instantly, based on what Katara could see of her face. Below her, she could hear a little bit of rustling as her brother struggled to stay hidden from the woman’s sight.  
Well, he certainly wasn’t all that great at that, and Katara couldn’t stop herself from shouting when he hit the ground. It wasn’t that high a fall, but it looked like he’d hit the ground at an awkward angle. Carefully, she started to prepare herself to run, because it’d be crazy for this lady not to call the nightwatch on them, at this point.

Then, Katara heard the sound of rusted metal scraping against wood, followed by a few muddy steps. She tensed, ready to spring into action, when the movement stopped. Katara jumped from her branch now, and saw the woman staring at Aang, looking both relieved and deeply confused. Why this person would be so relieved by the presence of the Avatar, she couldn’t guess.

The lady looked around, before finally dropping the rake.  
“Do you kids know what time it is?” Came a question. Aang, who had looked ready to face just about anything, looked a little confused.

“I’m not sure? Midnight, maybe?” He asked. The woman raised an eyebrow.

“Well, it’s late enough. Shouldn’t you all be in bed by now?” The woman followed the question with something Katara couldn’t quite understand, but Aang’s eyes widened at it. 

Sokka, who had been previously forgotten in the mud, was next to her now, arms crossed over his chest.  
“Yeah, yeah. Look, would you just tell us where we are?” The lady cast him a flattened glance.

“You’re in the capital. How could you not know?” She answered.  
“What? There’s no way. We were just there a few hours ago, it looks nothing like this!” Sokka exclaimed, arms in the air for dramatic effect. 

Toph shook her head.   
“She isn’t lying. I can feel the rest of the city from here, it feels a lot like it.” She paused for a moment. “Do you think they secretly have wood benders?”

“I mean, it does seem just like the Firenation to hide a secret fifth type of bending.” Sokka said, grooming an imaginary beard.  
“Woodbenders? Did you kids get into some of that ‘peach-juice’ the old man down the street was selling?” What? The place was a ghost-town earlier, never mind people selling things! 

After a short silence, Aang spoke up,  
“When was the eclipse?” The woman took a moment to contemplate.  
“Depends. There was a lunar eclipse in Omashu a few weeks ago, but if you’re asking about here…. We had a Lunar one like, three years ago. I don’t really know when the last Solar one was, but it certainly wasn’t recent.” Katara looked to Toph, who just nodded. 

Sokka looked absolutely stunned, and she had to admit that this time, it wasn’t really all that stupid.

“If you need somewhere to stay, there’s an inn over the street that way. Maybe you’ll be able to figure out more for your studies tomorrow.” The woman said, pointing them to a small building.

**Author's Note:**

> That poor comb....  
> Suggestions are welcome! I'm not entirely sure where to go with this right now.


End file.
